These Are the New Ice-Cream Innovations You’ll Want to Check Out This Spring

Victory Garden's new seasonal sundaes, made with goat's milk soft-serve.

New York is fast approaching ideal ice-cream-eating weather conditions, which means that the city’s ice-cream parlors are rolling out some excellent new flavors. This year, many of them are seriously creative: Morgenstern’s is adding an entire strawberry section to its menu, Oddfellows recently introduced a maitake-mushroom flavor, and Van Leeuwen will soon launch a collaboration with a local forager. Here’s a look at some new sweets for spring:

Dandelion Flower & PistachioWhere: Van Leeuwen
A new collaboration with forager Rhett Godfrey, set to debut in late June, will feature locally foraged flavors like Wild Root-Beer Float, with sassafras root; Wild Toffee coffee, with Kentucky Coffeetree; Sour Strawberry, with Japanese knotweed; and Forest Harvest Mint Chip. Plus: The Williamsburg shop, opening soon, will be the first to offer soft-serve and vegan frozen yogurt.

Vegan Açai Soft-ServeWhere: A.B. Biagi
In a few weeks, the Nolita shop will debut a virtuous soft-serve made from açai (the Brazilian superfood), almond butter, and a rotation of fresh fruits.

Every Kind of Strawberry ImaginableWhere: Morgenstern’s
The ice-cream shop made a name for itself by offering five variations of vanilla, and soon, the team will introduce an entire section of the menu devoted to strawberries: There’s Salty Strawberry Sqirl (swirled with the L.A. restaurant’s famed strawberry-rose-geranium jam), Strawberries N’ Cream, and Stawberry Almond Joy, with toasted almonds, coconut, and chocolate chunks.

“Coming to America”Where: Mikey Likes It
This East Village parlor now serves Moet champagne ice cream with rose petals. Fancy!

Raspberry-Rose PopsicleWhere: People’s Pops
Look out for this new popsicle at Smorgasburg — made with fresh fruit, of course.

Raisin ToastWhere: Oddfellows Ice Cream Co.
Sam Mason has created a few new flavors: Malt Maitake Peanut — ice cream with actual maitake mushrooms and toasted peanuts; and Raisin Toast — toast ice cream with raisin puree and toast “soil.” Mason will also bring back the beloved Cornbread Sundae, which hasn’t been on the menu since the summer of 2013.

Oddfellows Ice Cream Co.'s Raisin Toast.
Photo: Melissa Hom

Root-Beer FloatWhere: Momofuku Milk Bar
On April 29, Christina Tosi will introduce three new soft-serve flavors: cinnamon-pineapple at the midtown shop, pink-lemonade in Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens, and Soho, and root-beer float at the East Village and Upper West Side outposts. The latter isn’t a classic float — it’s a soft-serve that captures the flavor.

Horchata Soft-ServeWhere: Big Gay Ice Cream
Douglas Quint and Bryan Petroff just started making horchata soft-serve — based on the traditional Mexican rice-milk drink — as well as a rotating special of cereal-inspired Trix soft-serve.

Key Lime With Graham CrackerWhere: Il Laboratorio del Gelato
Other new flavors include brown sugar, chocolate-orange, and carrot — and, as regulars know, the menu frequently changes, so expect even more as the warm weather wears on.

Giardino VittoriaWhere: Victory Garden
Goat’s milk soft-serve is the specialty here, and founder Sophia Brittan has conceived a few new seasonal sundaes. This one — with a fennel-seed cone, candied pine-nuts, bitter orange drizzle, and fennel pollen — can be paired with any of the flavors on tap.